new year's danger the u.s. is still stuck on the edge of its fiscal cliff with only hours left before a tough mix of tax hikes and spending cuts hit americans. investigators begin ruling out possible causes for the deadly plane crash at a moscow airport our correspondent at the scene outlines the tragedy step by step. from the rest of the middle east and arab world to europe's money roller coaster the russian public getting more politically vocal and we sum up the major events that shaped twenty twelve.

well it's a pleasure to have you with us here on new year's eve here in the russian capital the big show planned for you as we count down the last two hours of twenty twelve. thank you for joining us. now trying to pull the u.s. back from the brink of the fiscal cliff it couldn't get much closer to the wire at this point in just a few hours americans will be hit hard by billions of dollars of tax hikes and spending cuts which will automatically come into effect on tuesday the republicans and democrats are now in a last minute effort to avert it this time rapidly runs out how washington correspondent guy nature can filed this report. the u.s. congress created this cliff situation when they failed to agree on a budget that would help the country reduce its deficit and its you monger's debt and what they did was what they usually do they put off those important decisions

until a certain deadline that deadline is now so they came up with this scary word cliff to create lots of drama around which would be the ordinary maybe somewhat boring working process of any congress or parliament that is to agree on a budget the need to deadlines so the cliff which actually describes the mode in which the congress is working their inability to make decisions until the very very last minute the cliff that u.s. lawmakers have artificially created could become very real for the american people the vast majority of them over one thousand government programs would be cut it would hit the unemployed very hard they would stop getting unemployment benefits there would be other automatic cuts and tax hikes that would mostly affect those who are financially insecure but everyone knows even if the lawmakers don't need the january first deadline they can pass measures retroactively and at the end of the day they will decide something but congress seems to love the drama of the

whole cliff situation they have all the attention in the world and literally the whole world the media of course help them hype it up with the countdown they started two months ago and while politicians here are enjoying all that attention turning last minute trick scoring political points the hype around the scary word cliff is already hurting the economy experts say it's affecting business and consumer confidence if wall street is any indicator stocks have been falling for a fifth straight day on friday they called it a fiscal cliff slide other markets are reaching signals certainty coming from the u.s. oil prices have soared in the asian markets ahead of a last minute effort in washington to read. deal on fiscal cliff that's what you read in the news so this whole charade in washington could have implications on many levels and the fiscal cliff which some call a product of u.s.

lawmakers imagination could become a self-fulfilling prophecy and he's the guy next to kind reporting right while i while congress has trouble sorting out a deal to prevent americans slipping into a tax black hole some agreements just seem to breeze on through and china mcgrath from a wide awake news explains. look at the united states of america this is where we govern by crisis we don't have representatives in washington d.c. we have political prostitutes that will go before a camera and say that anything that they have to say is you keep this massive government rolling and you can make social interest influence a washington d.c. whore that when the cameras are on you know they're on the red team they're going out there saying it's the welfare folks as well that's the people on food stamps or the people in extended unemployment benefits if they're on the blue team they're coming out and trying to get their base fired up that it's all about their corporate interests and that this is why we can't come up with you but isn't it me is it when the cameras are off and it's time to pass a trillion dollar nearly trillion dollar cost defense bill they have no problem

whatsoever coming to coming together and holding hands with that kind of a deal together i think ultimately the hammer is going to fall on the people of this country it is called austerity nobody in washington d.c. wants to own up to that austerity but eventually it's coming to this country. you're watching live from moscow a crash investigators have ruled out the condition of the runway as a cause for saturday's deadly plane tragedy at one of moscow's busiest airports the red wings full of jet skidded right off the runway and plowed into the embankment of a major highway and five people who were on board have died well there are three others who are still fighting for their lives. look at how the disaster unfold. the twenty ninth of december the last working day of two thousand and twelve in russia. business is. the next year families. jump into their cars and escape the busy capital. highway heads to the west of moscow region where most of

the luxury states and country houses are located traffic jams are common this time of the day this time of the year but want to lock the road is almost empty. passengers come out of the car to see what the sound was think sex to see anything but not this. this is it is this or that and simpler to know for what number ninety six i think is linda said look i told him it was from the czech republic the plane touches down but can stall as three to one was the wrong way they had but still the airline is moving too fast i think fear is true at that moment very quietly knows already they

will not make it the jets reaches the end of the runway runs into the fence but still continues moving it finally sold off overrunning the asteroid by four hundred meters the plane breaks into three parts the tail is lying over the whole year the road people can easily see its number or a fix for four seven the middle paul just bought mrs away the cockpit is already partially damaged after the crash with a science falls right at the edge of the highway it's a miracle indeed the road is empty at that time this is a ten lane highway the wreckage is only on one of the lanes traffic continues on at least three here even after the tragedy says fashion by slowing down to see what happens they notice and then when called street light on the road is a very road they usually drive every friday and everybody saying such bad moments was evil eyes had call minutes earlier or was eve i have been on that airplane

people come also their cars and try to help out those in the cockpit how ready the . weather conditions technical failure and pilot error are among the investigators main causes of the incident was most likely a combination of reasons behind a fatal crash however a plane hitting a busy highway. one of europe's biggest cities could have a much more devastating trail of destruction there wasn't enough log for everyone on that saturday evening. party. you can get some expert opinion on what may have caused the crash as well as details about the plane just search of the web site www dot com. now the end of the year in britain also means plowing through tax return forms of course before the penalty deadline many people though are already being penalized

in the pocket simply by asking for help in filling out the forms. reports. your annual tax return a process that many adults find utterly daunting and perplexing luckily for the british public the tax man has a whole of way of telephone helplines to help and advise people on how to fill in the piles of forms needed for it getting through to someone might be a bit of a problem though britain is spending watchdog says that last year some twenty million phone calls went on the once a by the government tax office and of those lucky enough to get through between the months of april and september over six million people had to wait for over ten minutes just to get an answer from someone and i've decided to give him revenue and customs premium priced phone line a call to find out how long it would take me to get through to them. i've spent over three and

a half minutes waiting for someone to pick up the phone. last year customer spent an estimated thirty three million pounds in call charges just waiting to get through to somebody at the tax department experiencing what critics call a shameful level of service revenue and customs have released a statement saying that they've lowered the cost of calls to one of their premium phone lines the most popular one they also say that they're aware that they weren't able to deliver the standard of service that they're committed to in the past however they're now answering over ninety percent of the calls that are made to them but ultimately critics say that it's the complicated u.k. tax code that spans over seventeen thousand pages that british citizens find it so hard to get their head around and it's the telephone providers that are responsible for the helplines but it cashing in on all the tax confusion. it is part of why they're reporting right now with the new year just around the corner for us right

here in moscow we have prepared a special farewell to twenty twelve of course here on out c i don't miss our special coverage live broadcasts from several countries as well as spectacular images of all the festivities and some a full costs of what to expect twenty thirteen of us to come before midnight here in moscow next though we recap the major events of the algo and you will be on the next break. so how much does it take to get into russian politics how many hours of hard work and how many patriotic deeds does it take to become one of the people who make the decisions in the world's largest country well i'll tell you how much it takes exactly seven point five million euros russia's federal investigative committee has a stablish that allegedly hey of and constantine should show of from fair russia

and the commies prospectively promised for a fee to get a businessman on to their party's electoral lists giving him a spot in the lower house of the duma the investigators have forwarded the state duma an official request to strip the two m.p.'s of their parliamentary immunity and you're darn right they better street have their parliamentary immunity stripped i mean what's worse than government corruption some people in the government being so corrupt they can actually sell the government itself to someone for a fee so positions in parliament corruption on this high of a level needs to be punished severely breaking rocks in siberia or worse sounds pretty good to me tolerating flagrant corruption does not a great civilization make but that's just my opinion. he survived. atrocities. to make

a cycle is a solution. he has changed his life and the world around him. by giving up. hope. and loves to so many children. nikolai the clerical worker on the tape. holding. her mum flint. goodspeed. her.

wish. to. be. good. luck. to. her. a. little. welcome back here with aussie law from moscow less than two hours to go now two hours left of twenty twelve though it's already twenty third. in some parts of the world that's including china japan singapore and thailand are bring out the map for

you now celebrations in full swing in seven of russia's nine time zones at the moment over the urals just joining the far east and siberia as the world or gradually greets the new year we do have a look now at the events which twenty twelve will be remembered for. my. point it while has reached its and along with the nine colander. but it looked more like this. a decade of war is a. good friend years. well we're still here and when it comes down to it the world not only didn't end but very little changed in two thousand and twelve we have the same challenges facing the globe the same conflicts preventing

peace the same policies hampering solutions and many of the same people in power as we come into twenty thirteen so what will twenty twelve be remembered for let's take a look back. at some in gaza their world did end when israel launched a short but deadly campaign in response to rockets fired by hamas after one of their leaders was assassinated u.s. solidly backed israel but critics claim the use of disproportionate force has become too common a practice for you really defense force journalists also being targeted and children becoming casualties it has the same policy if you like as the united states with regard to collateral damage that it's happy to injure dozens of palestinian men women and children as long as they can kill one person who might have helped fire a rocket into israel shortly after a cease fire palestine celebrated gaining u.n.

nonmember status but it's still a long way from statehood as is the region from a peaceful two state solution between israel and palestine this was a conflict continues to rage in neighboring syria you know that russia trying to possibly stay running his country. he has to go assad must go but charlotte said. demands and predictions that syria's president would fall in twenty trials went on for fulfilled i mean if you had sat down for an exclusive interview with r t well into the year insisting he would not give up as the push for regime change continued and terror reigned in his country of them i'm not popular i wasn't me but with the with for twenty other countries i'm sick and i mean. i may be in syria and i have to revisit him but it's going to be deemed everything from civil war to sectarian fighting to terrorism to genocide syria stay the center of a media war through out twenty twelve with unconfirmed atrocities on both sides

haunting the web and only one side tricking the brunt of the blame for assad is crazy he's a brutal dictator he's killing his own people this is the same narrative that we heard about gadhafi. but we don't hear much about libya in two thousand and twelve on most networks or from western officials not until the aftermath of regime change there and the terror that ensued went too far u.s. ambassador and embassy staff were killed in benghazi in september the most significant event two thousand and twelve is the failure of nato to follow up on its on its libya momentum to create a forced regime change through proxy. mercenaries in syria and the fact that russia and china and iran stood firm on. the entire time table that nato had in mind to run this stabilization. and now the entire arab spring scenario is. it's not disintegrate it's becoming

a nightmare one that spread to western allies in the region like bahrain for mass protest arrest and even death haven't provoked much global media coverage or any push for democracy. instead provocations like the film the innocence of a muslim made headlines and incited outrage across the arab world funded in the u.s. and considered highly offensive to islam the movie didn't go over well in states now run by islamist after post revolution polls in egypt and tunisia. u.s. embassies were left in shambles as flags burned and freedom of speech was back on the debate or tonight the film was banned in some countries like russia and defended by others like the states as a protected life of expression a right not awarded to whistleblowers like julian a song who had a busy year and here he was granted political asylum by ecuador after being

released on bail while the weighting of british court's decision on his extradition to sweden for most of twenty twelve assigned to remain under house arrest but still managed to find the right to leave they can change the world tomorrow is groundbreaking exclusive interview show c'mere on our teens and always on sat down with guests shunned by the mainstream media like has the last house on the throne and internet freedom on his visit to the site where the future of the internet i think it's no journalist with the salt in the world working today has not used a wiki leaks cable whether it be at the lowest level of covering their local health center to the idea of schools a education let alone geopolitics still many journalists slammed the songes work on r t and he continues to be a man the west and mainstream media love to hate he remains holed up at the ecuadorian embassy in london fearing u.k.

officials will grab him the moment he steps outside. protests ripped across europe in twenty twelve as the euro crisis worsened leaving many no choice but to go out onto the streets and so many people are becoming desperate people are gaga. angrier and angrier spain had millions on the street at a time demanding the government stop cuts and demos continued in greece who got a forty four billion euro bailout masses were met with heavy handed policing in most countries across the e.u. which was awarded a nobel peace prize in twenty trials. they ultimately if there are too many protests won't even be able to afford the policemen on the streets and therefore we could actually end up not so much with a violent reaction from government but there's actually a danger of an arche because government itself may break down the crowd is. not the case in the us where the occupy movement lost momentum of this here corporate back

media and authorities managed to dull demonstrations demanding economic equality and responsibility is one of a party that there was you know you wait for occupy the to expand from its needs and from that. you know usually you write it by the elites as a bunch of anarchist story or students who know how to see better to do is to organize themselves fully to something the group is promising in twenty thirteen with some predicting the old ws movement might have better luck in europe. russia saw protests this year leading up to an after vladimir putin was elected for a third time as president but not nearly as big as what we saw at the end of twenty young lavin i think the demonstrations in russia what motivated by frustration the demonstrators had a clear political goal which was to discredit the good of the reputation of a christian but you don't. know if those could be genuine russian

going to win the election they have no choice they have no possibility of beating them in an election so they try to their strategy was instead to discredit the east of the ice and the west just before putin's inauguration protests in central moscow turned violent for the first time in three. an opposition movement began to rally against the arrests were made in both protesters and police reported injuries several demonstrators face court hearings on charges of inciting mass public disorder and a dozen more trials will carry on in the new year with the opposition claiming this is all part of a kremlin clamp down on their movement but putin's reelection and protests didn't get nearly as much attention as this. people need to put the riots rocked riot on the altar of christ the savior and the scandal that followed made world headlines took over the blog a sphere and had celebrities like madonna just sending them to the russian orthodox

church she was outraged. there is no defense in this case it's simple p.r. lawyers on cooking up on olive feel they're working towards the brand in order to capitalize on it in the future and it's worked some of the groups girls got two years in jail for the stunt which was criticized by the west as too harsh the story remained in the headlines for weeks on end leaving little room for stories like this. thank you very much the way u.s. presidential candidate jill stein and her running mate arrested for protesting outside a debate for top party only candidates obama and romney the american system is designed to eliminate political opposition like some of the you know dictatorships that we criticize the debate makes a mockery of our democracy despite being on the ballot in a not states to technically written stein and other candidates we're not allowed to

debate i got almost no coverage in the lead up to elections on the u.s. networks instead third party candidates only chance to debate live on television here was for marty's washington studio i think our founding fathers would be spinning it in their graves if they could see this. in line with homes and part. action obama won the election but his work is cut out for along with other world leaders to be here to come along for harmony growing discontent and conflicts either standing still raging while he's now a party. or not to turn our attention to that of syria where one hundred thousand people could die if indeed over the next year if the government and opposition don't start talking and the chilling prediction coming from the un's international peace envoy of course like me he also warned that the country would become a failed state ruled by warlords unless diplomacy is given

a chance his proposed peace plan involves forming a transitional government based on an agreement between the oil storage and the rebels but the opposition is dismissing the initiative saying it won't ceasefire or join any talks unless president assad goes. but a member of the syria dialogue organization believes the rebels position is being instigated from. what should be mixed is a wide dialogue between all syrians but as we see this the superpowers in the world are through the pressure of the opposition for dialogue and this mean more morons or it's getting by the opposition peril of the guards who. are who are close that we have gone there for a long time and it's been the after the and it's quite clear where they are coming from the border is with. the borders of living on the borders with jordan are slightly off that as well and it's obvious that the international powers that with

them powers are interested in allowing this work in smuggling and in boxes like turkey or some part of the love of doing that if the job. or our new year's eve special starts in half an hour that'll be coming up after this special report. in the glow of russia's no way from civilization and history are one helicopter treat from the nearest village. they still one family have been living here for a long time in tents made of reindeer skins.

so if you can stand. lodging runs in a signal and minutes they also grew up in the to draw but left it at the age of six and never returned they now live in the city in apartment building but still room and they are regions. was planted here as a dyson teacher. was. sent to his den says he tells us stories about his mother land. laws in europe to now has a one thousand strong rangy had when the enemy only saw the light can and most around it is gather the tens and move to another posture they travel hundreds of

kilometers in winter we know and children for them. but the two families have less of a chance to come across each other they belong to different worlds even though there's sometimes a similar. wealthy british style. but i was. carted around. the. markets why not this kind of. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mind.